I missed this last week.

The man the AFR experts thinks is “Australia’s newest datacenter titan” has never built a datacenter.

He lost $24 million in 2024. He has an MOU from Microsoft that says they’ll give him $2.5 billion if he turns up a datacenter in Laughton, UK, by the end of this year. That’s on the site he doesn’t actually own, which is currently running as a scaffolding yard (The Guardian broke that story)

On the strength of his $24 million loss and that MOU, Macquarie Bank has loaned him $105 million.

Last year Kier Starmer trumpeted his company as “British sovereign AI.” He has no AI, no British employees, and was based in Australia at the time. He’s built precisely nothing whatsoever since Starmer’s endorsement.

AFR wrote this article AFTER ALL THAT INFORMATION WAS MADE PUBLIC. “Datacenter titan,” no datacenters, losing money hand over fist, originating from Bitcoin grift.

Gud jernalisms!

https://www.afr.com/world/europe/from-newcastle-to-nvidia-meet-australia-s-newest-data-centre-titan-20260317-p5ob7v

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang predicts $50 billion revenue for Joshua Payne’s AI data centre firm Nscale

Josh Payne counts Microsoft as his biggest customer and Jensen Huang as an investor and believer in his young company’s ambitions as a computing hyperscaler.

Australian Financial Review
@NewtonMark Man, I really gotta start lying through my teeth more. 🤔
@NewtonMark Formerly of Arkon Energy, a solar installer, then proposed electricity arbitrage ('buying direct from the generator before it even reaches the grid'), then a Bitcoin miner and proposed being a clean energy datacentre developer. After much hype then abandoned plans to do a reverse listing onto the Euronext exchange. And now AI, what a ride!

@NewtonMark Then there is the other guy's IPO they are promoting. "Who can say if this convicted criminal and crypto guy can be trusted with your money?"

https://www.afr.com/technology/from-conviction-to-connection-inside-oliver-curtis-6b-shot-at-redemption-20260311-p5o9f4

Oliver Curtis, of Nvidia and Blackstone-backed Firmus Technologies, on his insider trading redemption from Singapore with wife Roxy Jacenko

His $6 billion start-up has powerful backers convinced it’s on track to AI factory riches. But is a man with a conviction for insider trading the right guy to lead it?

Australian Financial Review
@NewtonMark I'll bet he has a nice car, but.